Longevity and Catheter-Related Infection Rates in Nonhuman Primates with Chronic Indwelling Intravenous Catheters

In preclinical models, indwelling intravenous catheters and vascular access ports are often essential components of biomedical research aimed at modeling human disease. For instance, animal models of drug self-administration are used for many reasons, including to assess abuse liability, to study physiologic and neurologic consequences of drug exposure, and to examine the efficacy of behavioral and/or pharmacological interventions. The most frequent route of drug self-administration in preclinical animal models is the intravenous route via indwelling intravenous catheters. The present study examined 23 years of drug self-administration studies in Old World macaques used in drug self-administration studies at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The medical records for individually or pair-housed adult rhesus monkeys (n = 10 females and 172 males) and socially housed cynomolgus monkeys (n = 64 females and 92 males), all implanted with indwelling intravenous catheters and associated vascular access ports, were examined. The most frequent vein catheterized was the femoral vein, followed by the internal and external jugular vein; the least frequent was the brachial vein. The infection rates over 23 years and >500 catheters in cynomolgus and rhesus monkeys were 13.7% and 10.3%, respectively. The average catheter remained patent and implanted in the vein for 22.5 months in cynomolgus monkeys and 15.5 months in rhesus monkeys. These findings highlight significant strengths in using Old World macaques, both rhesus and cynomolgus, in long-term, longitudinal studies involving indwelling intravenous catheters.